[philosphd]

I have an HP Pavillion laptop. Because it was becoming extremely slow, I decided to do a system restore. I used the HP restore program already installed when I bought the laptop. But while it was doing a backup onto an external harddrive, the computer froze. As it turns out, my harddrive failed - it was damaged.

Now, on my external harddrive, I have about 14 GB of my files backed-up. But it ends in a .fbw extension. I understand that this is specific to the HP program.

Does anyone know if and how I can access those files, in the hopes of recovering at least some of the data I lost?

I should mention that I'm trying to recover the data on another non-HP computer (Windows XP), not the original HP laptop (Vista).

The .exe file in the picture below was the HP Recovery program that's supposed to restore your backed-up data. I opened it, but it's been stuck at 0% with no progress:








I'd appreciate any help.

[BeeCeeBee]

Quote

As it turns out, my harddrive failed - it was damaged.

It would appear that the HP backup process has failed and there may be very little likelihood of using the backed up files. However the real question is how badly damages is the hard drive and can you access the actual original files from it? How do you know it is damaged?

I would suggest removing it and getting a usb caddy. Attach it to another working PC and try to remove the actual files that you would like to save. It really does not matter what the OS is on the two machines since you are only trying to copy files. If you are unable to do that it is just as likely that you would have been unable to access the backups since they are on the same hard drive.

So back to the original comment. How bad is that drive?

[philosphd]

Thanks BeeCeeBee.

I called HP and took my laptop to a technician, both told me of damage to the HD. The technician actually tried to access my HD and copy files from it, but was unsuccessful. None of my data could be found on the HD. I suspect they were lost during the recovery, when it froze. I ended up buying a new HD from him.

But there's still the file that remains on my external harddrive with 14GB of data. Isn't it likely at all that I may recover at least something?

[BeeCeeBee]

I misread your original post and did not notice that the files were on an external drive so there is some possibility that it may be able to be read. This is proprietary software so you may be best to contact HP support. However we will also do a bit of research on the subject. I have a feeling that the .exe file that shows on the drive may not be complete despite the icon.

If those 14 Gbs are actually your data files we should be able to find a way to salvage whatever is there.

[BeeCeeBee]

Apparently your problem is not all that unique. Before it gets more complicated try renaming the backup file to add 2 zeros before the number. In your case try 002.fbw. Once you have done that try to open with the .exe file and see if that works.

Also have you tried it on a Vista machine.

By the way, I would not give up on that original harddrive without trying to connect it via usb yourself. Usually if the disk is really goosed the data can still be recovered but it is often quite expensive.

[philosphd]

I just wanted to thank you for your help and suggestions. I will get back to you once I try them out.

Just one question though, what do you mean by 'connect it via usb yourself'?

[BeeCeeBee]

You can buy a caddy or adapter that will hold the drive as if it were a normal external drive and allow you to connect the drive to any pc using the usb ports. If the drive is functioning at all you should be able to read its contents and move them onto the pc and then onto any other media.

[philosphd]

I apologize for the late reply, I've been very busy lately.

I don't know what happened, but now the .exe file doesn't open at all. I've tried the renaming (to 002.fbw) as well, but it makes no difference since, as I mentioned, when I click on the .exe nothing happens...

:confused:

[BeeCeeBee]

It would appear that your best hope is to try and get the data off the original drive on a different computer.

[philosphd]

The problem is that the drive is not functioning at all (according to the technician I took it to originally).

[Match]

Hi Philosphd

just been looking through HP's support page's have you seen this:-

HP HP Backup and Recovery Manager: restore files

I also had a quick look around the net and unfortunatly it would look like a specialist job, in which case I would recomend taking/sending your original drive to a specialist data recovery company, take a look at these :-

Datatrack Labs : Data Recovery UK

I am not recomending them just did a quick google and they seem to be in the bracket of able to help.